Happy New Year to you all dear family and friends,
Yesterday Tho and I had a small group of old friends coming to our house to celebrate the old and new year together,
We ate hmmmmmmm…chatted
and laughed quite a bit, and then went together on an inner journey reflecting through a guided meditation journaling on the past year and the year to come,
A feeling of deep gratitude filled me thinking of all my beloved ones, our children,
grandchildren, family near and far and all our precious friends, old and new…
Friendship and love truly are the most precious in life!
So to you all my dear friends my best wishes of FRIENDSHIP And Love for
the years to come
Didn’t the Buddha say to Ananda who asked him what was the most important ingredient on the Path: Spiritual friendship, dear Ananda, is the most important on the Path!
I feel blessed by
so many friends and family walking on the Path with us! Through sunshine, storms, typhoons, snow, wind, soft breezes…walking together is pure JOY !
There is support, loving kindness, joy, compassion and our common aspiration
for Freedom guiding our way together 🙂
And to you my dearest friend and beloved Tho…what is the most important?
As Lisi mentioned, yesterday we did a journaling practice to welcome the New Year.
One of the questions was:
“Fast forward and imagine you are on your deathbed looking back on your life, what stands out and what trace would
you like to leave behind?”
As I visualized it, I felt such a deep gratitude for all the people that I/we have met in the course of my /our life so far.
Outer circumstances are not that important, but people do matter, relationship
is what shapes life, friendship and love are the very fabric of existence, all the rest fades away and is barely remembered once time has moved on.
This morning Lisi and I meditated together to begin the New Year with the right motivation
and intentions.
We practiced a “Metta meditation”: sending Loving Kindness to ourselves, to all those that we love: family and friends; to all the people that cross our path even if we don’t really know them, to those we have difficulties
with, and finally to all sentient beings.
After having practiced this meditation, I felt such a deep gratitude to realize that when I think of all my relatives and friends, of all the people that I love, the room is filled and actually
although our meditation room is not that small they could never all fit into inside.
On the contrary, when I think of the people I have had difficulties with, I struggle to find any significant events, and the room is almost empty.
Realizing
this, I feel this is the greatest blessing I can imagine.
I want to share this meditative prayer by Thich Nhath Hanh as a New Year gift to all our friends:
"May I be safe and protected.
May I be peaceful and
happy.
May I be healthy and strong.
May I have ease of well-being, and accept all the conditions of the world.
May I love myself just as I am.
May I sense my worthiness and well-being.
May I trust this world.
May I
hold myself in compassion.
May I meet the suffering and ignorance of others with compassion."
"May all beings be safe and protected.
May all beings be peaceful and happy.
May all beings be healthy and strong.
May all beings
have ease of well-being, and accept all the conditions of the world.
May all beings love themselves just as they are.
May all beings sense their worthiness and well-being.
May all beings trust this world.
May all beings hold themselves
in compassion.
May all beings meet the suffering and ignorance of others with compassion."
~ Thich Nhat Hanh